In a report to the European Court of Justice by the NGO Legal Center Lesvos, the Greek state has embarked on a comprehensive and sophisticated measure to ward off unwanted illegal migrants traveling from Turkey to Greece by boat. The method reported is alleged to be that masked commandos boarded several smugglers’ boats, transferred the illegal migrants to lifeboats and then towed them back to Turkish waters to hand them over to Turkey. Furthermore, the European border surveillance organization Frontex is believed to be part of the ongoing operations that make it difficult for the illegal smuggling of millions of migrants to Europe via Turkey, reported The Guardian.

This has upset mass immigration advocates who are now trying to prosecute Greece in the European Court of Justice for its defence of its borders.

Legal Center Lesvos is a non-governmental organization, or so-called NGO, which, like many others of its kind, seeks to increase mass immigration to Europe by smuggling migrants into the EU. They are now trying to punish Greece in the European Court of Justice, citing a specific event that took place in October 2020. The incident, it is said, is just one example of something that is now happening continuously as part of the Greek state’s attempt to curb mass immigration to its shores from countless smugglers who are bringing illegal migrants from Turkey via the Aegean Sea.

In the case in question, a fishing boat filled with 200 illegal migrants is said to have left the city of Marmaris in Turkey and allegedly set course for Italy. Outside Crete, an emergency call must then have been made – which usually means that the migrants are picked up by the coast guard and taken to a European port where they then seek asylum. But this time, Greece had initiated a counter-defence move and instead of picking up the migrants, the smuggler was met by two of the Greek Coast Guard patrol boats that kept the smuggler in place for five hours. Then came a number of smaller fast boats filled with armed and masked commandos who quickly boarded the smuggling ship.

“It was like watching a movie. The men from the command boats jumped on board and shouted, carried weapons and knives and wore black masks,” recounted an illegal migrant from Syria.

“They started hitting people with batons while looking for the captain. They hit me in the face and my glasses broke… I understand that they do not want us, but they could send us back to Turkey without having to use force. When they left us in the lifeboats, we all thought we were going to die,” he continued.

Sending back illegal migrants

The illegal migrants on board were then divided into two groups and transferred to the Coast Guard’s patrol boats, the Legal Center Lesvos claimed in the report. There, their belongings were searched for weapons, drugs and at the same time several telephones, money and passports were confiscated according to the organization. Finally, the illegal migrants were forced to board several small lifeboats and then towed back to Turkish waters where they were forced to wait 24 hours before the Turkish Coast Guard arrived and picked them up and brought them back to Turkey.

The report to the European Court of Justice complained about what they called “pushbacks” which are believed to have become the standard procedure for the Greek coast guard since March 2020, when Turkey, in an attempt to force the EU to give them more money, said it intended to aid illegal migrants cross the border and on to Europe. Greece responded to the threats by allocating more resources to the Coast Guard to stop the onslaught by discouraging more of the illegal migrants from seeking refuge in Europe to benefit from handouts.

In a dozen cases, similar methods as the one alleged in October have been used and it is now believed to be standard practice to return the smugglers and their cargo to Turkish waters. Frontex, the Joint European Border Guard Organization, is also accused of helping by keeping incidents secret and providing support to Greece to defend its borders.

International legal decision worries asylum seekers

These actions with “pushbacks” are alleged to be illegal under international law – but are legal in Greece, which takes its border security very seriously, especially in times of increased risk of military conflict with its arch-enemy Turkey.

Many NGOs and mass immigration advocates are also complaining about a ruling by the European Court of Justice last year that could make their smuggling activities more difficult. The case was about Spain violating the rights of two asylum seekers who had illegally entered their enclave of Melilla on the Moroccan coast. Together with hundreds of Africans, they had stormed the fence and entered the enclave before being arrested. The Spanish enclave guards then expelled the illegal migrants. The European Court found that the law had not been violated as these illegal migrants “were part of a larger group” and thus did not seek asylum at the individual level, which is a requirement to seek asylum.

The ruling is now believed to be used by Greece and Frontex in support of their actions because the illegal migrants who come by boat do not do so individually but in large groups.

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/05/11/greeces-controversial-method-of-discouraging-illegal-migrants/

Less than 24 hours after the German leader of the FFF movement, Luisa Neubauer, had posed as a moral authority on the topic of anti-Semitism on Anne Will TV show, her Fridays for Future friend Greta Thunberg caused a furore. On Twitter, she shared a tweet by BDS activist Naomi Klein, whose statements in the past have themselves been classified as anti-Semitic by newspapers such as Taz and Zeit. In the tweet, Klein accuses Israel of “war crimes”.

Israeli cities were under rocket fire from the radical Islamic terror group Hamas for hours yesterday, only the “Iron Dome” missile defence system was able to prevent disaster – this goes unmentioned by Klein, who uses the hashtag “#GazaUnderAttack” and attaches a video from the anti-Israel Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU). The video shows heavy rioting in East Jerusalem between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

Knowingly or unknowingly, Greta Thunberg has spread the anti-Israel propaganda of an anti-Semitic author. So far, one waits in vain for Luisa Neubauer to distance herself from her statement. Let me remind you of Neubauer’s words on Anne Will TV show on Sunday: “You legitimise racist, anti-Semitic, identitarian and science-denying content”, “Yes, please confront it!”, “You should know that”, “He spreads the content, and that has also been proven, many times”, “And you should be informed about that”.

Meanwhile, this is the situation in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, with 140,000 inhabitants:

Even the public broadcaster ARD, whose host Anne Will desperately tried to back up Neubauer’s statements on Sunday, does a poor job of journalism. The information – Israel retaliated with air strikes against Hamas positions after hours of rocket terror – is summarised by ARD with the sentence “Israel and Gaza are firing at each other”. In the text accompanying this, the casualty figures of the “Ministry of Health in Gaza” controlled by the Hamas government are not questioned.

Meanwhile, in the Israeli parliament, a ceremony commemorating the liberation from National Socialism had to be cancelled and the MPs evacuated because of Hamas rocket terror.

https://www.tichyseinblick.de/daili-es-sentials/greta-thunberg-teilt-antiisraelische-propaganda-ard-relativiert-hamas-terror/

On Saturday night, there was an attack with the use of paint on the residential and business premises of Franz Laslo, a member of the AfD faction in the local council, in the street Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße in Schorndorf, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. In a self-incrimination statement by the so-called “Antifa”, left-wing extremists claimed responsibility for the anti-Semitic attack on the Jewish-oriental shop, councillor Lars Heise reported on Facebook.

Several Christmas tree balls filled with red paint hit the façade of the building where Franz Laslo has been running his Jewish-Oriental shop “BeitShalom” for many years. Among other things, there are many excellent products from Israel for sale there. Laslo is a member of the AfD and a friend of Israel, having spent many years there.

“Since open anti-Semitism is now rarely openly shown to the outside world, even in left-wing circles, they hide behind so-called “criticism of Israel”,” wrote Lars Heise. “However, the fact that Jewish shops and institutions are targeted has not changed with regard to left-wing extremists.”

For Franz Laslo, this is not the first attack on his premises. In its coverage of the latest attack, the Waiblingen newspaper publisher (ZVW) also outlines the other nefarious acts that have already hit the shop in Schorndorf’s old town. In 2017, several shots were fired at the shop’s window. Only a year later, there was another shop window attack with a heavy hammer. Shortly afterwards, Laslo complained of a verbal assault, as a result of which he was also spat at. However, the alleged perpetrator of the spitting attack was acquitted.

http://www.pi-news.net/2021/05/schorndorf-antifa-greift-israel-laden-an/

The so-called “Room of Silence” at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration has been quietly and secretly transformed into a sort of mini-mosque. A functionary of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP)’ s action group, who is also active in Islamist circles, is mainly responsible for this.

In a video, “AG agent” Ali Titiz proudly talks about having redesigned the quiet room at the University of Economics: A place of silence open to all religions and also atheists has apparently become a small mosque with prayer rugs and privacy screens, in the middle of the university campus. It is questionable whether members of other denominations can still use the space without being disturbed, and whether the Muslim redesigners also allow women to pray away from the privacy screen.

For university insiders, the close involvement between the ÖVP-affiliated “Aktionsgemeinschaft” and the Islamist association ” Intercultural Student Association Vienna (ISV)” should not be a new development: More than a year ago, it became public that the association was associated with the “Milli Görüs” movement, which is monitored by the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution. However, this does not seem to be a problem for the action group that was confronted with the accusations at the time: Then as now, there are numerous functionaries with a dual function. Ali Titiz, for example, is the ISV’s university policy officer and also works as an AG activist.

https://www.unzensuriert.at/content/128380-von-wegen-konservativ-aktionsgemeinschaft-eroeffnet-uni-moschee/

Aiman Mazyek is the face of German Islam. No other Muslim has been so present in the media and so politically networked for years. He commemorated the victims of Islamist terror arm in arm with Chancellor Merkel. With the then Vice-Chancellor Gabriel, he travelled through the Islamic world shoulder-to-shoulder. He chatted with various German presidents in Bellevue Palace. And hardly a dialogue forum could do without him. If the state needed a representative Muslim, Mazyek and the Central Council of Muslims of Germany (ZMD), which he leads, were the first choice. At least until now.

That was always astonishing. After all, the Central Council only has a few tens of thousands among the five million Muslims in Germany. And according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it was always influenced by Islamist and Turkish nationalist forces. But Mazyek was a brand. Communicative. Charming. Never at a loss for an authoritative word. And as a person, he was more at home in the camp of conservative reformers than in that of the Islamists. For example, he undeniably supported the ideas of a reformer like Muhammad Asad for years – and thus caused many an ultra-conservative fellow believer to shake his head.

Now, however, the man from Aachen is in danger of losing ground. The Ministry of Education in North Rhine-Westphalia is responsible for this. It rejects Mazyek’s Central Council as a civic ally. Soon it will present the members of a Muslim commission that is to help shape Islamic religious education at schools in the state. Until now, the ZMD has always been part of similar committees.

Now, however, he is being booted out because, in the opinion of the government, he does not meet the criteria for participation. These range from independence from foreign countries to loyalty to the constitution. The government also dislikes the fact that the Islamist organisation DMG has not yet been definitively excluded from the Central Council. And that the Turkish nationalist organisation ATIB has a strong influence on the ZMD. The state is thus picking up on a mood among experts inside and outside the Office for the Protection of the Constitution that is increasingly critical of the ZMD.

However, the ZMD has never been distrusted in such a high-ranking position. And this is all the more remarkable because the state of North Rhine-Westphalia continues to accept the other associations, which could be accused of similar charges, as partners. The ZMD is obviously being deliberately targeted here.

That is why the Central Council is currently trying to sue its way into the commission in court. But that does not worry those responsible in the Ministry of Education. They are certain and want to appoint the commission members soon – without waiting for the court’s decision. That is why the ZMD started a second lawsuit, this time an urgent legal procedure. The ZMD wanted to prohibit the state from appointing the commission before the first lawsuit had been decided. This emergency application was rejected by the Administrative Court last week, as this newspaper learned. So the most important representatives of German Islam will soon be presented – but for the first time there will be no Mr Mazyek. Is this the beginning of the end or will the clever Mr Mazyek succeed in achieving a turnaround?

https://www.welt.de/regionales/nrw/article231033531/NRW-Schulministerium-lehnt-Zentralrat-der-Muslime-als-Partner-ab.html?fbclid=IwAR20Mr7UaC4-ZCSk6I34l-cfizYKeJ6wK_x6ZveCd25BFSujpKQXMh4GaZY

Algeria continues to demand that France pay reparations for the crimes committed during 132 years of colonization, Algerian Minister of Information and government spokesman Ammar Belhimer said on Saturday, on the country’s first day of national remembrance.

Algeria commemorates the independence movements of May 8, 1945, which were crushed by France. Algerian President Abdel-Majid Tebbún decided on the commemorations a year earlier. Saturday’s official celebrations centered on Setif, 300 kilometers east of Algiers, which was one of the bases for independence movements and one of the two sites of colonial authorities’ brutal reprisals.

Nuclear explosions and nuclear waste

Belhimer said another important element in settling the colonial past is for France to take responsibility for experimental nuclear explosions in Algeria and hand over maps showing the locations where nuclear waste was deposited. This topic is one of the biggest sources of contention between Paris and Algiers.

France carried out 17 experimental nuclear explosions in the Algerian desert, between 1960 and 1966 in Reggane and then in In Ekker. Eleven of these took place after Algeria gained its independence in 1962. One of the clauses in the Evian Convention, which ended the War of Independence, signed in March 1962, allowed France to use the Sahrawi experimental sites until 1967.

Macron made only symbolic gestures

Algeria’s information minister indicated on Saturday that Algeria has so far gained only modest financial but greater moral benefits from its claims for compensation, which remain important to the North African country. The head of the ministry highlighted that the skulls of 24 nationalist fighters had been recovered last July, and in March, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the responsibility of the French army in the 1957 torture and assassination of nationalist leader Ali Bumangel.

Citing the speech of the Algerian minister, the French daily Le Monde noted that Macron has made a number of symbolic gestures for reconciliation in recent months as Algeria’s 60th anniversary of independence approaches. However, historian Benjamin Stora’s report submitted to the presidential office this January, on which Macron’s policy addressing France’s colonial past is based, does not propose either an apology or reparations, which has sparked criticism from many in Algeria.

Algeria demands compensation for French colonization

Mohammed was again the most frequently given boy’s name for newborns in Berlin last year. According to the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache e.V. (German Language Society), he was in first place, ahead of Noah and Henry. Mohammed thus leads the ranking of the most popular boys’ names in Berlin for the third year. The most common girl’s name in the capital in 2020 was Hanna, followed by Charlotte and Mia.

In Bremen, Mohammed also ranked among the three most popular boys’ names. Here, however, it fell from first place in the previous year behind Noah and Elias to third place. In the remaining 14 federal states, Mohammed did not make it into the top three names list.

According to the German Language Society, Mohammed is the most popular male first name in the entire Islamic world, which also makes it the most common male first name worldwide. “In Germany, it has only appeared more frequently since the 1980s. For some years now, it has been one of the ten most common boys’ names in some federal states. Overall, it ranks 24th among the most popular names in Germany.”

In 2020, Noah, Leon and Paul were the most common names for newborn boys in Germany. For girls, Emilia, Hanna and Emma prevailed.

https://jungefreiheit.de/politik/deutschland/2021/mohammed-vorname-berlin/

Windows of the Town church damaged by stone throwing.

The period of the crime in question was Saturday, May 8, 2021, noon to Sunday, May 9, 2021, 9:55 am.

Property damage amounting to EUR 1000 was caused to the windows of the town church on Kirchplatz square (photo).

Unknown perpetrators used stones and wheel nuts to break several windows at the rear of the Protestant Town Church. The windows were considerably damaged. The Schwalmstadt police station has started an investigation into the damage to property.

Please contact the Schwalmstadt police station if you have any information by calling 06691/9430.

https://www.presseportal.de/blaulicht/pm/44149/4911052

For days, there have been heavy clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem due to planned forced evictions of Palestinian families’ homes. Hundreds of people have been injured since the unrest began. In the Berlin district of Neukölln, around 500 people took to the streets on Sunday in solidarity with the Palestinians. The protest did not remain peaceful. Bottles and also stones were reportedly thrown at police officers. Several people were arrested. Police also threatened to use pepper spray when an angry crowd confronted them.

https://politikstube.com/berlin-pro-palaestina-protest-in-neukoelln-flaschenwuerfe-und-festnahmen/